Six-month survey of OFW families

Survey of overseas Filipinos shows increase in OFWs, remittances

By JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
OFW Journalism Consortium

BRGY. PAMPANGA, Davao City --- Bags of cement and concrete surround the garage of vacationing overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Constancio Cagadas, 55, who said that he hopes to build either a sari-sari store or a barbershop soon.

In his living room, Cagadas' three daughters play a Nintendo game set up beside a videoke machine and one of their two refrigerators. The second refrigerator is in the mini-bar which is stocked with bottles of wine.

These modest gains, Cagadas said, worth approximately P70,000, come from his monthly pay of US$700 as a head waiter at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He said his current paycheck at the Intercon was 'the fruit of his hard work' that began in 1984 when he earned only US$250 a month until 1997. When he was promoted to head waiter in 1998, Cagadas salary was nearly tripled.

If not for his overseas work, Cagadas said he would not have been able to send his four children to top colleges in Davao City, and improve his house. Cagadas remits US$600 a month to his family through a bank, of which US$500 goes to daily expenses and US$100 goes to the tuition of one of his children.

Monthly remittances by OFWs to their families like the Cagadas have not only helped them survive poverty in the homeland, in many cases, these have raised their income levels.

The number of OFWs and the amount of remittances their families receive have been rising, according to comparative 2002 and 2001 figures of the Survey of Overseas Filipinos (SOF) conducted by the government's National Statistics Office (NSO).

NSO's annual SOF gathers estimates of the number of overseas Filipino workers, their socio-economic characteristics, and the amount and mode of remittances, in cash or in kind, received by their families.

Six-month total: P67.711 billion

The SOF, which surveyed OFW households from April to September 2002, showed that 1.056 million OFWs--an increase from last year's SOF estimate of 1.029 million--remitted P67.711 billion during the six-month period, compared to P55.325 billion in 2001.

In terms of average remittances for the six-month period, the NSO 2002 estimate was P74,487 per OFW, while the 2001 estimate was P63,608.

In terms of regional distribution of the 1.06 million OFWs, the National Capital Region tops the list with 216,000 OFWs. The Davao region (or Region XI), where Cagadas comes from, had 27,000 OFWs in 2002--a drop from 35,000 in 2001 (See Table 1).

Male OFWs like Cagadas remitted more (P45.528 billion) than females (P22.183 billion), according to the 2002 SOF. In the six-month period, males remit an average of P92,601 versus the females' P53,520. Men also remitted more than females in the 2001 SOF' P35.267 billion versus P20.057 billion. (See Table 2)

The breakdown of the 2002 remittance figures showed that P46.374 billion was 'cash sent', P17.015 billion 'cash brought home', and P4.322 billion was 'in kind'. Across the board, the figures are higher than the 2001 figures of P38.514 billion 'cash sent', P13.034 billion 'cash brought home', and P3.776 billion 'in kind'. (See Table 3)

SOF not Bangko Sentral reports

Remittance figures from the SOF should not be confused with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' usual report that OFW remittances have totaled over US$6 billion per annum since 1999. The BSP reported a rise in OFW remittances to US$6.932 billion in 2002, from US$6.031 in 2001.

The BSP reports are culled from remittance figures reported by existing official banking channels such as banks and money-wire agencies. Economists and migration experts estimate total OFW remittances to range from US$8 to 10 billion, if the remittances from the informal channels are included.

The SOF is the only statistical tool about Philippine migration that provides an estimate of remittances coming from informal channels.

SOF 2002 estimates that 853,000 OFWs sent cash remittances during the survey period. Some 597,000 OFWs used banks, 19,000 remitted through agencies or local offices, 16,000 through friends or co-workers, 218,000 through door-to-door services, and 2,000 through 'other means'. (See Table 2)

Formal vs. informal channels

OFWs like Cagadas who used formal channels such as banks (597,000) and agencies or local offices (19,000) remitted P35.207 billion through the banks and P1.709 billion through agencies and local offices. OFWs who used informal channels such as friends or co-workers (16,000), the door-to-door system (218,000), and other means (2,000) sent home P0.436 billion, P8.958 billion, and P0.061 billion, respectively, in 2002.

Comparing six-month averages, OFWs who remit through agencies sent an average of P88,527, followed by those remitting through banks with P58,953. The OFWs remitting money door-to-door sent an average of P41,096 over the six-month period from April to September 2002.

In terms of gender, 336,000 male OFWs remitted P25.059 billion through banks, while 116,000 male OFWs remitted P5.402 billion through door-to-door services.

As for the female OFWs with cash remittances, 261,000 of them sent P10.148 billion through the banks, and another 102,000 sent P3.556 billion through door-to-door services.
No other statistical tool on OFWs attempts to track remittances sent through informal means. Migration experts think the informal remittance figures estimated by the annual SOF 'do not [necessarily] lead to a total estimate of how much Filipino migrants remit informally'.

Factor: increase in OFWs abroad

One important factor behind the increase in remittances was the increase in the number of OFWs during the period April to September. The 2002 figure was 1.056 million OFWs, compared to 1.029 million in 2001.

A source of confusion is the SOF definition for 'OFW'. The SOF 2002 media release defines OFWs as 'overseas contract workers who were presently and temporarily out of the country to fulfill an overseas contract work for a specific length of time but still had an existing contract work abroad, and other Filipino workers abroad with valid working visa or work permits.

The definition implies the exclusion of immigrants or permanent residents. However, the NSO added that those who had no working visa or work permits abroad (such as tourist, visitor, student, medical and other types of nonimmigrant visa holders), 'but [who] were presently employed and working full time in other countries', were included in the survey.

The 2002 SOF figures showed that 554,000 of OFWs were male and the rest were female. In the 2001 SOF, where there were 1.029 million OFWs, 528,000 of who were male.

If the 'OFW' figure of the SOF is to be segregated further, 990,000 of them are overseas contract workers (OCWs) while 66,000 are labeled 'other OFWs', which includes immigrants. OFW Journalism Consortium

Table 1: Number of overseas Filipino workers, by sex and region: October 2001 and 2002
(in thousands)

Source: 2002 and 2001 Surveys on Overseas Filipinos
National Statistics Office - Income and Employment Statistics Division

Table 2: Number of Overseas Filipino Workers with Cash Remittances, Total and Average Remittances, by Mode of Remittance and by Sex (April to September 2001 and 2002)

* - details may not add up to totals due to rounding

Source: 2002 and 2001 Surveys on Overseas Filipinos
National Statistics Office - Income and Employment Statistics Division

Table 3: Number of Overseas Filipino Workers with Remittances, Total
and Average Remittances, in Cash and Kind, by Sex (April to September 2001 and 2002)

* - details may not add up to totals due to rounding

Source: 2002 and 2001 Surveys on Overseas Filipinos
National Statistics Office - Income and Employment Statistics Division

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